Young Writers Society

It took a moment for James's vision to return to normal. He felt his whole body ache as he slid down the stone onto the ground, like the whole world was shaking, and the rain was melting the land away. But he summoned his willpower to bring himself back to his feet, and upon seeing Tasha - the... wolf - on the grangor's head, his mind sharpened and he was brought back into the fight with a new wave of adrenaline.

He leapt forward and slid back beneath the grangor between its front legs, slicing through its chest and down to its stomach as he ran. Not as deep as the two gouges, but again, drawing blood - though his run was cut short when the beast turned and stepped on him, trapping him under its paw. With one arm free, he stabs between its toes and its claws *shing* out past his face, narrowly missing his head.

Oh, no you don't! She shifts forms on its back, hanging on with her legs as she draws her two Iiedoran boot knives, sinking them into the beast's flesh with a snarl.

The grangor lets out another roar at Tasha's attack on its back, and kicks James away with its paw. James felt the grangors claws skim his chest as it did so, wincing, though grateful that it didn't dig any deeper with the sudden movement. As he flew down to its hind legs, he stumbled over so that he was underneath the creature once again. Blood was dripping down from the wounds he'd already inflicted, making quite the mess, but he needed to finish this. He stabbed it one more time, and with all his might, pulled the sword from one end of its stomach to the other.

In seconds, blood and water and who knows what else began to spill from the wound. The grangor let out a cry of pain, and for a moment, stumbled on its legs. But then, as James came running out from underneath it, its tail came whooshing around, knocking James from the back, clear to the ground with a *whump.*

Now he had the grangor's attention, and though it was bleeding quickly, it still had fight left in it yet.

Digging one knife into its neck for a hold, she swings down, and, hanging from one arm, cuts a long gash where it's jugular should be.

The grangor's pupils dilated, and it opened its mouth to let out another cry, but it couldn't. It sputtered, and its legs quivered beneath it. It stepped forward, but its leg gave out and it fell to the ground with a mighty thud. James remained facedown in the dirt, still recovering from being slammed into the earth. With his arms trembling, he pushed himself up, looking at the bleeding belly of the beast. He reaches for one of his swords and pushes himself up onto his feet, watching the grangor heave and gasp for air. For a few moments, its paws slowly reach out, trying to fight back, and trying to claw at one of them, but its normal agility was replaced with weak attempts at movement.

With his heart still pumping at an alarming rate, he ran over to the head, and saw Tasha hanging from its neck. The light that normally illuminated the grangor's eyes began to fade, and he watched as the light and life literally faded from the creature.

It was dead.

With heavy breathing, James slouched forward, and wiped blood out of his eyes (whether it was his or the grangor's, he wasn't sure, but he was covered in it).

"Tasha." Was all he managed to get out between breaths.

She collapses amidst the blood and fur, breathing hard. "We did it. We did it." She seems surprised and relieved. Blood stains her uniform, her hands, her face - her entire body.

James walked over to her, the only driving force behind his steps being what remained of his adrenaline fueled stamina. As he kneeled in front of her, he saw her bleeding wound from when the grangor struck her with its paw. With them both being wounded, and covered in blood, he knew they needed to get back in the cave and get cleaned up, and stop the bleeding.

Fortunately, since the grangor had pulled its paw out from the cave, the cave opening was close and open. But they needed to act fast. He looked up at the clouded sky - the rain still falling hard.

"Let... me help you get back to the cave." He said between breaths, offering an arm to help her up.

She gets to her feet on her own. "You're more hurt than I am. Go ahead and ride." Nightmare is standing nearby, watching the exchange.

"We're both -" he stuttered as he lost balance, his body feeling the physical repercussions of getting slammed into hard rock and ground. He catches himself, with his hands on his knees. "O-ok." He replies in resignation, and approaches the horse.

The mare snorts and lets him mount. Tasha leans on the the steed - though she wasn't thrown down like Mike, she's lost a lot of blood. They slowly but surely make their way back to the cave past the granger's fallen body.

James had to force himself to stay alert. Now that he was finally still, he felt like the whole world was shaking. How hard had he hit his head? It felt like he had a mind-splitting headache and a massive bruise growing.

They arrived back in the cave in silence, and James slid carefully off the horse, giving it a pat on the side. He took a moment to assess things... looking at his blood drenched self, and Tasha, behind equally bloody.

"You gotta stop bleeding." Such was all he was able to communicate clearly, with the amount of throbbing that his head was doing.

She just nods in response, peeling off her jacket and limping over to her saddlebags, pulling out bandages, a leather pouch, and some rags. She takes the latter and hands some to Mike. "To stop the bleeding," she grunts.

James nodded back, pulling off his blood soaked shirt, then going to get his own supplies - grabbing a fair amount of rags and clean bandages. As Tasha hands the rags to him, he looks over to her, jumping to make the assumption that she wanted him to help her stop her bleeding.

"Ok. Uh, you wanna sit down then?"

"No, for you," she snorts and takes off her jacket.

James stared at her for a moment, the words taking a second to compute. "Oh." He nodded slowly, sitting down on the ground. "We both need it. Lets just take care... of each other then."